Uploaded October 2024 | Updated September 2026, 3 hours ago
The Opening Door (Performance philosophy)
These days I do breathwork and EFT tapping before hitting the stage
Like seeking the father in the morning in a normal day
I employ the very same technique right before I hit the stage
Deep breathing
Into the diaphragm for 2 and a half minutes or so, into a minute and a half of breath holding
Where I’m consumed by silence and consciously being present focusing energy in my third eye center and in a way disappearing all together for moments I call tiny eternities.
Touching the eternal source
Praying to God for wisdom and to guide my steps when consciousness does arise.
Before a performance I pray to give the light and the love of the lord to the crowd,
To be a conduit.
I also pray to be light and funny,
To draw the crowd in and to remember my lyrics.
I utilize EFT (emotional freedom technique)
During these moments as well
Tapping on the center of my head
On my forehead (at the third eye)
Under my eye on the cheek
Right above my upper lip
On my chin
And then with a fist on the center of my chest
(Pounding like a warrior)
I suppose this technique was designed to engage acupuncture points
And it’s reason for being effective is beyond my grasp,
But I just know that it is.
So it’s a more active form of meditation before a show,
But essentially the same as my daily morning routine.
Sending a message to myself (or my ego) that he is to ride in the backseat,
And the only thing I have to offer energetically speaking, all comes from somewhere beyond
me.
I empathize with the crowd and think of their lives,
The inevitable hardness of them,
And the fact that they are there to experience a love that I’m merely a conduit of.
When I was younger I was mostly unconscious of this dynamic and sought to be loved more than to love.
I sought to receive more than to give.
This led to many unhappy moments where my mind would bully me relentlessly
And where I was affected by reality in unfortunate ways.
The soul of music is powerful and more powerful than an ego’s unconscious grip of the situation,
So as a young person I would often transcend this dynamic in spite of myself.
I would become a conduit for a higher love or energy very often
But I had no grasp consciously of this compared to now.
The gig last night was at
Salle Claude Terrasse, in L’arbresle
And was all filmed by a professional TV crew
A small festival with two other performers going on before me,
A small crowd of 250 or so
The energy and enthusiasm of the French audience is unmatched.
Rapturous applause and screams between songs where they would often sing along. They make it easy.
Several people afterwards thanked me for the energy and the love they felt,
Which let me know that the power of intention and prayer and seeking the father before hand really was effective.
A performance really is an interesting field to observe ego and spirit working together.
Yes you can call spirit or presence into a position of dominance before hand,
But in my case I’m not simply going up on stage and ohming into a microphone urging everyone to follow me into a group meditation
(I do sometimes do that for a minute or so for comedic purposes)
Performance for me is deeply involved technically,
Skills I’ve developed and evolved for years are all applied.
Intense singing
Building beats and loops live
Intricate guitar
And remembering and delivering 2 hours of lyrical content,
Which all means one can’t just display a state of pure being in that situation
Silently transmitting love.
So obviously the ego needs to be involved here.
Transcendent moments happen within during all this,
And as I’ve done it for so long it is relatively second nature at this point,
But that said
It ain’t spirit alone up there with me.
And I believe this is an important aspect of what awakening actually is
My ideas about it before, versus the reality of it’s experience
The idea of awakening previous to this experience would have been more like complete ego disappearance,
Where one has fully transcended into a blissful state of pure being
And is needed to even be reminded of things like having a name at all,
or any kind of separate identity structure all together.
In many ways I can see the ridiculous nature of this fantasy,
Living here on the material plane,
On the planet called earth.
And it’s not even that I believe those states of non identity are impossible or even outside of our actual nature
And perhaps real reality,
I think ultimately only consciousness itself is eternal
And only what is eternal is actually real.
All else is a transitory dream.
But as long as we are having this human experience on the planet called earth,
We are for this transitory moment,
Still within the confines of this dream to one degree or another.
And our purpose here (at least for most of us)
Isn’t simply just to be on a mountain transmitting God’s love into the ether.
Josepharthur.com
The Opening Door (Performance philosophy)
These days I do breathwork and EFT tapping before hitting the stage
Like seeking the father in the morning in a normal day
I employ the very same technique right before I hit the stage
Deep breathing
Into the diaphragm for 2 and a half minutes or so, into a minute and a half of breath holding
Where I’m consumed by silence and consciously being present focusing energy in my third eye center and in a way disappearing all together for moments I call tiny eternities.
Touching the eternal source
Praying to God for wisdom and to guide my steps when consciousness does arise.
Before a performance I pray to give the light and the love of the lord to the crowd,
To be a conduit.
I also pray to be light and funny,
To draw the crowd in and to remember my lyrics.
I utilize EFT (emotional freedom technique)
During these moments as well
Tapping on the center of my head
On my forehead (at the third eye)
Under my eye on the cheek
Right above my upper lip
On my chin
And then with a fist on the center of my chest
(Pounding like a warrior)
I suppose this technique was designed to engage acupuncture points
And it’s reason for being effective is beyond my grasp,
But I just know that it is.
So it’s a more active form of meditation before a show,
But essentially the same as my daily morning routine.
Sending a message to myself (or my ego) that he is to ride in the backseat,
And the only thing I have to offer energetically speaking, all comes from somewhere beyond
me.
I empathize with the crowd and think of their lives,
The inevitable hardness of them,
And the fact that they are there to experience a love that I’m merely a conduit of.
When I was younger I was mostly unconscious of this dynamic and sought to be loved more than to love.
I sought to receive more than to give.
This led to many unhappy moments where my mind would bully me relentlessly
And where I was affected by reality in unfortunate ways.
The soul of music is powerful and more powerful than an ego’s unconscious grip of the situation,
So as a young person I would often transcend this dynamic in spite of myself.
I would become a conduit for a higher love or energy very often
But I had no grasp consciously of this compared to now.
The gig last night was at
Salle Claude Terrasse, in L’arbresle
And was all filmed by a professional TV crew
A small festival with two other performers going on before me,
A small crowd of 250 or so
The energy and enthusiasm of the French audience is unmatched.
Rapturous applause and screams between songs where they would often sing along. They make it easy.
Several people afterwards thanked me for the energy and the love they felt,
Which let me know that the power of intention and prayer and seeking the father before hand really was effective.
A performance really is an interesting field to observe ego and spirit working together.
Yes you can call spirit or presence into a position of dominance before hand,
But in my case I’m not simply going up on stage and ohming into a microphone urging everyone to follow me into a group meditation
(I do sometimes do that for a minute or so for comedic purposes)
Performance for me is deeply involved technically,
Skills I’ve developed and evolved for years are all applied.
Intense singing
Building beats and loops live
Intricate guitar
And remembering and delivering 2 hours of lyrical content,
Which all means one can’t just display a state of pure being in that situation
Silently transmitting love.
So obviously the ego needs to be involved here.
Transcendent moments happen within during all this,
And as I’ve done it for so long it is relatively second nature at this point,
But that said
It ain’t spirit alone up there with me.
And I believe this is an important aspect of what awakening actually is
My ideas about it before, versus the reality of it’s experience
The idea of awakening previous to this experience would have been more like complete ego disappearance,
Where one has fully transcended into a blissful state of pure being
And is needed to even be reminded of things like having a name at all,
or any kind of separate identity structure all together.
In many ways I can see the ridiculous nature of this fantasy,
Living here on the material plane,
On the planet called earth.
And it’s not even that I believe those states of non identity are impossible or even outside of our actual nature
And perhaps real reality,
I think ultimately only consciousness itself is eternal
And only what is eternal is actually real.
All else is a transitory dream.
But as long as we are having this human experience on the planet called earth,
We are for this transitory moment,
Still within the confines of this dream to one degree or another.
And our purpose here (at least for most of us)
Isn’t simply just to be on a mountain transmitting God’s love into the ether.
Josepharthur.com
